Universities’ efforts not being materialized in interests of country: Dr. Altaf Mukati

Vice President SZABIST Dr Altaf Mukati has over 40 years of teaching experience in engineering universities in Pakistan.
ER: Are universities recognized as think tanks by the governments and the engineering industry?
Dr. Altaf Mukati: It is a significant question. Universities cannot work in isolation in the society that we live in. We cannot look at education in isolation, as society leaves an impact on our minds. We {universities} cannot become think tanks unless the hurdles are done away with. For instance institutions like ours having 6 campuses and over 200 PhDs with over 10 thousand students, many of our faculty people are many things. But, unfortunately, those efforts are not being materialized in the interests of the country. And this is not specific to one university only. There is a lot of negative news around through the media. It leaves a negative impact on us. Also, students live in the same society, they get an education but lag behind being research minds.
Look at the fact why universities are different from community colleges. The latter educates you and the former focuses on research and over half of the universities’ resources are spent on research. There are around 190 universities in Pakistan, of which many are working on an individual basis but the collective effort is missing. It is because of the lack of encouragement as my experience goes. I have been sending proposals to HEC and been communicating with PEC but I do not get any acknowledgment only.
ER: These factors apart, are our universities equipped enough and resourceful to be recognized as think tanks?
DAM: There are two parts, one is academic activities and two, research facilities which are restricted in private sector universities because of their financial constraints. The establishment of the Higher Education Commission was meant to facilitate all universities including private sector institutions. But now the focus is on only public sector universities. Big public sector universities have resources in abundance but they are largely unutilized whereas private universities like ours start early in the morning and make full utilization of our resources including our labs. In sum, the resources of one category of universities are underutilized while in the other category they are overutilized. This is an imbalance.
HEC was to become a facilitator but turned out to be a dictator; it dictates universities. It supersedes every law passed through the Charter of the universities. This is the killing factor in higher education in Pakistan. If private universities don’t follow HEC, the degrees would not be attested. The public sector universities cannot do anything because they get funding from there.
ER: Do the governments or engineering industry believe the universities are think tanks and should be recognized?
DAM: As far the corporate sector is concerned, our graduates are recognized through their performance and we have a long list of our alumni.
For me academia-industry liaison is important and we have been talking about it for the last 40 years. This interaction is very limited. Until and unless it is improved, we cannot succeed. The government has to play its part as the private sector industry cannot absorb all engineering graduates.
ER: Do private sector industry and public sector organizations approach universities for research on the issues they face?
DAM: They don’t approach much. For instance, our Mechatronics students have been producing very good projects but they do not get any encouragement from industry and the government. Finally, these projects, commercially viable, end up in a showcase.
However, many of our faculty members work on projects with the industry on an individual basis. We have permitted them for such effort. But the collective effort that we are talking about is not there. Even our research papers and publications are not focusing on the issues prevalent in our society. Once I claimed that 90 percent of research papers in the HEC repository are useless. They were produced after the hype surfaced following the establishment of HEC that linked promotions with acquiring Ph.D. degrees and research papers.
ER: What challenges do you face the most while running this university?
DAM: There may be many issues but one should look at the key points behind the success story. I am happy to be here. When I joined SZABIST, the number of admissions was less. I increased admissions without compromising on quality.
Our system is different from the developed world and our undergraduate students depend on their parents. On the contrary, in the developed world the student works hard to fund his own education and this is a serious point about the education. Students here are very casual because of their financial dependence on parents who do not know what their children are doing at the university. They are ignorant of their children. Also, there is no counseling for students to choose their fields.
Then there is yet another issue. We enroll our children at the age of 3 and 3 and a half whereas in the developed world one does not send their children before 5. The children miss the play age of childhood. Moreover, there is no training for children either in the families or in the educational institutions.
ER: Would you like to share any achievements that cannot be forgotten?
DAM: There are many such accomplishments. One such achievement was the videos produced by our media sciences that were selected for the Kairens Festival in France.n